Latest
Energy CEOs urge industry not to quit hydrogen dream
Australian businesses need to be smarter and work harder to overcome the cost hurdles in hydrogen, which has a strong future in some industries, CEOs insist.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
Green hydrogen too ‘expensive and inefficient’: Finkel
Former chief scientist Alan Finkel – who devised Australia’s first clean hydrogen strategy – now says we are “unlikely to use hydrogen for storage of electricity”.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith, Peter Ker and Jessica Sier
Forrest says Element Zero execs burned bridges ‘like Nazis’
Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest has distanced himself from surveillance tactics used against former employees, but fully supported the IP lawsuit against them.
- Peter Ker
Don’t restart energy wars, business and green groups warn
A coalition of business and environment groups has urged governments to provide credible and consistent energy policy.
- Tom McIlroy
Fortescue’s pivot shakes faith in Labor’s Hydrogen Headstart strategy
Power prices would need to drop steeply and electrolyser costs more than halve to produce hydrogen at anywhere near a competitive level, the industry has warned.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
This Month
Nuclear awakening ‘a decade or two late’, says AER
Clare Savage said it would take 25 years to put the political and regulatory frameworks in place for nuclear power – much longer than the Coalition says.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
Dutton a threat to energy transition’s ‘critical decade’: Bowen
Investment in renewables would grind to a halt on the election of a Coalition government, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen says.
- Phillip Coorey
Genex to depart ASX after investors back J-Power takeover
Shareholder approval of the deal, worth more than $1 billion including debt, was in little doubt after 19.9 per cent investor Skip Capital revealed it would back it.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
AGL, Squadron CEOs warn of pitfalls in flagship clean energy policy
The Capacity Investment Scheme could end up supporting poor projects that only won contracts because they bid at a cheap price and which will never be built, a clean energy summit heard.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
AEMO chief warns no chance of nuclear replacing ageing coal plants
Daniel Westerman, who runs the energy market operator, said gas generation would remain the “ultimate backstop” as fossil fuels exit the electricity grid.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
- Exclusive
- Mergers & acquisitions
Farquhar’s Skip Capital will back J-Power’s takeover of Genex
The Atlassian billionaire’s fund owns 19.9 per cent of the ASX-listed renewable energy group. Its support removes a major roadblock for the Japanese utility.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
Labor’s green hydrogen rules for $6.7b subsidy splits producers
Criteria being proposed for renewable hydrogen could mean emissions rise instead of fall as projects “cannibalise” the grid, green advocates warn.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
Snowy Hydro pushes gas power ambitions with major storage deal
The 25-year contract will underpin the expansion of the Iona project, and underscores expectations the fuel will remain part of the energy mix past 2050.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
Fortescue says Financial Review report led to spying on former staff
The Andrew Forrest-chaired mining giant said its investigation into alleged intellectual property theft began only after an interview published in January.
- Brad Thompson
- Exclusive
- Construction
Downer EDI pitches in on flailing EnergyConnect construction
The troubles at the cable project are being closely watched because its failure would imperil the entire build-out of the transmission grid, sources say.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith and Jenny Wiggins
Forrest says he was kept in the dark about spying on ex-employees
Fortescue’s executive chairman Andrew Forrest is considering sacking the company’s external lawyers who presided over the surveillance of former employees.
- Brad Thompson
- Opinion
- Energy transition
It’s an energy race between the implausible and the impossible
Peter Dutton has come up with a nuclear-powered cost of living wedge to expose Labor’s overreach on renewables and sustainability.
- Matthew Warren
Queensland breaks ground on $5b transmission project
The CopperString project will eventually link the mining region of Mount Isa with the port city of Townsville via an 840-kilometre high-transmission line.
- Tess Bennett
Transmission ‘will get easier’ after EnergyConnect: Transgrid CEO
Brett Redman’s comments come as speculation mounts Transgrid will need to bring other contractors in to complete the delayed $2.3 billion transmission project.
- Updated
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
- Technology Winner
- Sustainability Leaders
New tools democratise greenhouse gas management
A digital marketplace for companies with smaller carbon footprints to buy offsets has taken out the Technology category.
- Alexandra Cain
- Manufacturing Winner
- Sustainability Leaders
How Amcor gave us guilt-free cream cheese
Soft plastics are piling up in warehouses around Australia. Amcor says it has a solution, taking out the Manufacturing category.
- Sylvia Ramsey
- Special Award
- Sustainability Leaders
This trailblazer turns destructive weed into a replacement for coal
Biomass Projects has plans to build the world’s largest biochar production on a 225,000-hectare Pilbara plot that is overrun with mesquite.
- Gus McCubbing
- Logistics Winner
- Sustainability Leaders
Transport needs to avoid becoming the nation’s biggest emitter
Without dramatic changes, this may be the last industry to decarbonise. Aurizon, the winner of the Logistics and Transport category, aims to change that with its electric locomotive.
- Agnes King
- Banking Winner
- Sustainability Leaders
‘Everyone wins’: Financing renewables at scale
Brighte looks to boost the renewables transition through its ‘one-stop shop’ model, winning the Banking and Financial Services category.
- Prashant Mehra
- Agriculture Winner
- Sustainability Leaders
A farming revolution built on down-to-earth thinking
Increasing carbon levels in grazing lands could remove 10 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere says the winner of the Agriculture category.
- Tom McIlroy
